Glossary → Audio fundamentals
Audio fundamentals

Frequency

Frequency is how many times per second a sound wave cycles, measured in hertz (Hz) — perceived as pitch, with human hearing spanning roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

Speech intelligibility concentrates between about 300 Hz and 3.4 kHz (the classic telephone band); consonant detail that separates 'f' from 's' lives higher. This distribution is why noise in the speech band damages transcription accuracy far more than low rumble.

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